Last updated on September 26th, 2018 at 04:42 am
A new ABC News/Washington Post opinion poll released on Friday morning has a lot of bad news for the president. In the poll, disapproval of Donald Trump is at a record high, with fully 60% of voters saying they disapprove of his performance in office. And with 53% saying they “strongly disapprove†of Trump the news could hardly be worse for him or the Republican Party with just two months until the watershed midterm elections.
Only 36 percent of respondents said they approve of Trump, matching his all-time low in that category also.
In addition to Trump’s disapproval increasing, likewise the approval of special counsel Robert Mueller has increased to a new high, spelling more bad news for the president. The poll shows that Americans’ support for the Mueller investigation is very broad. And after the revelations made by Michael Cohen in his guilty pleas earlier in August, now half of Americans would like Congress so start impeachment proceedings against Trump.
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“60% disapprove of Pres. Trump, numerically the highest of his presidency; 53% disapprove strongly, the first time more than half have said so in an @ABC News/WaPo poll.â€
60% disapprove of Pres. Trump, numerically the highest of his presidency; 53% disapprove strongly, the first time more than half have said so in an @ABC News/WaPo poll. https://t.co/uoninVOCVD pic.twitter.com/SBqz6Z9tXg
— ABC News (@ABC) August 31, 2018
The poll results come just a week after Cohen pleaded guilty to eight felonies, including illegal campaign finance actions that he said Trump directed. The president and his television lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, have denied that Cohen’s illegal actions were done at the request of the president.
Also a week ago Trump’s former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, was convicted of eight counts of fraud. Even though the president was not implicated in these crimes, the criminal convictions reflect poorly upon him, and increase the sense that his administration is corrupt.
In another ominous sign for Trump, who campaigned on the slogan of “drain the swamp,†45 percent of voters are of the opinion that corruption in Washington has gotten worse under his presidency and only 13 percent say corruption has declined.
According to ABC, President Trump’s average job approval rating since he took office is the lower than any other president since polling began in the 1940’s.
Nearly two-thirds of Americans now believe that it is likely that Trump broke the law, and they support the Mueller investigation.
Most poll respondents also think Trump has improperly obstructed the investigation of special counsel Robert Mueller.
Support for Mueller’s probe has grown to 63 percent with just 29 percent now disapproving of what the special counsel is doing.
Presidential approval ratings are one of the top indicators of how the president’s party will perform in congressional elections. This means that Donald Trump and the Republican Party are in a downward spiral, and the chances of a Democratic takeover of Congress have never looked better.
I am a lifelong Democrat with a passion for social justice and progressive issues. I have degrees in writing, economics and law from the University of Iowa.
